Hm, I recently restarted pondering why most people hate Stoke. After all, they're the only side in the premier league not full of whining pussies. I mean, if a player from any other team in the prem, not just the top 5, got wounded in the middle of a game, say, just a nasty hit, not an actual injury, but still enough to draw blood and damage them, even though they could still play on, they would either:

A. Roll/lay around like a baby, exaggerating the pain.
B. Time-waste. (Seriously, I've never seen Stoke time-waste. No jokes about them never having the lead, please. )
C. Go off onto the bench like a tart, rather than walking it off and re-joining.

But a Stoke City player? Rofl. Robert Huth was crushed between two players' studs and bodies once. When the physio ran over to him, he had to try and pull Huth down, because he got almost immediately up and told the physio: "I don't have time to bleed." Add that quote to the fact that Huth is 6'4, German, and full of muscle, and it makes him rather badass.

And let's not forget the constant diving or at least the exaggeration of actual legit tripping. 8 years of going to all of Stoke's home games and a lot of away games (and I watched them if I couldn't go anyway) and the only player I've seen from Stoke dive is Kenwyne Jones. Which leads me to the conclusion of:

There are only two types of football fan. Intelligent, reasonable fans who are up for banter, and unintelligent, bigoted morons. And out of all of the people who dislike Stoke City, I'd say 96% of them are under 21, a hooligan, uneducated and childish. Their main argument is usually "STOKE CITY ARE A DISGRACE TO FOOTBALL I HOPE THEY GET RELEGATED BECAUSE THEY RUIN THE ENTIRE PREMIER LEAGUE BY BEING THERE THEY ARE DIRTY FUCKING CHEATS". But really, what "dirty cheat" never dives or time-wastes even though every other team that they face does?

Don't get me started on the long-ball. We've scored the least goals in the entire country this season, so clearly it doesn't work very well...so why does it anger everybody? That it is the question. So I have a second conclusion:

Stoke some of the greatest fans in England, and other premier league teams have absolutely disgraceful fans, ones who would spark chants of "You only sing when you're winning." This season, Stoke have played awful. Yet throughout the entire season, fans have remained loyal. Not only have they been cheering throughout the entire match and barely gone quiet, but there hasn't been an abundance of empty seats like there was with the teams below Stoke. However, other teams, whenever they're falling behind, apart from a couple thousand who are completely passionate about their side, just remain quiet. So basically, the reason why even though Stoke are awful, people still complain about their strategy, is very simple - when another set of fans, for example Manchester United, (a.k.a. rest of world) are having an absolute whale of a time because they're winning 3 - 0 at Old Trafford, and then suddenly their celebrations are drowned by thunderous roars of Potters fans, they have a "da fuck" moment.

Getting in behind your team whilst they're failing miserably is an alien idea to them, so they get pissed off that these "scumbags" who just don't give a shit, and are singing anyway, won't shut up. And of course, in their blind rage, they spout moronic ideas. "DURRHURR, STOKE ONLY SCORE FROM THROW-INS"

Let's see here...*flicks through all goals from Stoke City in the past season or two"....well...we haven't scored from a throw-in in...more than half a year? Fascinating.

But that's just making it specifically about Stoke, now. To generalize it and allow more people to relate to the post:

Why are the majority of premier league players and fans so damn disgraceful? And I mean - THE MAJORITY. 10% of players probably don't cheat/play cheaply, and 10% of fans probably aren't unreasonably bigoted.

As an Arsenal fan, I personally have no problem with the way Stoke play. If a team elects to sit back and soak up the pressure and/or launch the ball forward hoping for their strikers to hold up the ball to try and win the game then I'm all for it. It should be obvious that there is more than one way to play and win the game.

It just seems that so many people are in awe of the tiki-taka style that Barcelona (and Spain) have injected into the scene of world football that they deem everything else lazy, tasteless or even damaging to the game, which is just false.

If a coach like Wenger has a problem with it, he should focus his efforts on trying to break down their defensive set-up, not complain and see your team drop points because you can't adapt. Which, in fairness he doesn't do as much as he used to. Still I think he should have realized by now that it's good to have a plan B when playing different teams.

Haha. I didn't see the tweet but that's so true. I was definitely rooting for Japan in the WWC.

Was that Spain/Japan match on TV here in the US?

Anyway, I really like how Japan have progressed the past few years, in all tournaments. They've been very underrated due to them not playing against bigger teams but they have such a strong and sure sense of play that I could certainly see them going far in the Olympics.